Thursday, October 08, 2009

JD is Moving About

The little kitten formerly known as Jane Doe is now being called JD for short. Here are a few 12 second videos of her:


Encouraging Feral Kitty on 12seconds.tv


Rehabilitating Wild Kitten on 12seconds.tv


Feeding Feral Kitten on 12seconds.tv

Thursday, October 01, 2009

New Addition (Maybe)

About a month or so ago we heard a cat crying incessantly throughout the day. It seemed distant but close you know. I seemed to hear it more than Jeff at first and then he finally heard it. We went out to look in the yard and ended up scaring it out of the back garden. It was quick and stealthy. After along search we didn't find it.

A few days later we heard it again and went into the back yard to see if we'd have better luck. After much looking and waiting (for the meowing to start back up) we found it behind the shed under one of the dog's old pools. We tried to get it out and being the wiry bugger that it was it scooted up and over Jeff and out of our yard. Much too quick for us. There were a couple other false tries after this.

We didn't see the little bugger for over a month. Both of us thought that it had either found a home or a worse fate. Until today, when I dropped the dog off at the spa. On the way back a little gray fluff ball cut across the road. I slammed on the breaks, partially pulled over, slammed it into park, and jumped out to try to grab what appeared to be the same kitten.

It hadn't grown much if at all in the month since we saw it last. It was moving much slower. Not slow enough for me to catch it on the first try but definitely slower. After playing dodge the human across two yards I was finally able to reach over a bush and catch her. Did I mention wiry? I had to stuff her into my coat to hold on to her. She was trying to get away and purring at the same time which was confusing.

I was able to get her into an old cat kennel and process what I had just done. I had brought home a feral cat. Probably three months old but looking more like two. She is literally fur, skin and bones but you wouldn't know it from looking at her. It's when you touch her that you feel her ribs and hip bones. It makes me sad.

Luckily I was able to get her in to see a vet at the end of today. They gave her the once over, cleaned out her ears, gave her some flea goo, gave her some worm goo, loaded her belly with 1/2 can of high performance kitten food and sent her home with us with directions to keep her isolated from the other cats (vet is worried about spreading feline leukemia) and to feed her every two hours.

Jeff of course is going away tomorrow until Sunday camping with the Duke kids so it will be the dog, the cat, and the new kitten. Joy of joys. It will be an interesting weekend.

Here is the first picture of the little bugger. Currently she is going by the name of Jane Doe because we haven't developed the kind of relationship yet that she will share a name.

She can really pack the food away. Fluffy huh? We are working on a name. Some choices we came up with but are not sold on are: Bumper (because we spent a lot of time chasing her under them), Scarce, Mystique, Molly. I'm sure I'll come up with more before the weekend is over.

She's still a bit jumpy when we enter the garage or go near her too fast but once we give her some food she purrs and we're able to touch her a bit. We picked up some new towels from the bargain store on the way home (I washed and fluffed them up in the dryer) and we've made a snugly den for her. I actually have to go give her her last feeding for tonight in a few minutes.

I hope to have better pictures tomorrow!